Tegan's Return (The Ultimate Power Series #2) (16 page)

 Rita carries a black ruck sack containing the things she needs for the spell. All I've got is my dad's broken old silver watch, sitting like a lump of memories in my pocket. I remember when he gave it to me, it had seemed like a magical jewel full of wondrous possibilities. I miss the way I used to look at things when I was a child. People tend to lose that sense of wonder as the years progress. There are few things I keep in life, but little objects that hold memories have always been my vice.

 Finn pulls to a stop, parking the van in a free space and we all clamour out. Before we left the house Finn instructed us all to wear darkly coloured clothing as it would be less conspicuous. Then he made a highly witty jibe about that not really being an issue for Rita and myself. I didn't refrain from slapping him upside the head at that. He's still in a bad humour over it, which provokes the satisfied smile currently taking up residence on my face.

 We all follow Finn as he leads us not to the main entrance lobby, but instead down the side of the building. There's a heavy duty steel door with a computerised entry system built into the wall beside it. Finn whips some sort of box shaped contraption out of his coat and clips it onto the entry system, which immediately lights up and complicated codes run rapidly across the screen. Finn then begins hitting a series of buttons and I hear a loud click. He pops the little box back into his pocket and pulls open the door.

 “Now
that
was fucking cool,” Rita exclaims with a big grin on her face. She's definitely one of those people who always likes to be up to no good. “I feel like I'm in some kind of heist movie.”

 Alvie giggles in agreement. “Yeah Finn, if you ever decide to give up on the vampire killing business you should consider a career as a professional bank robber.”

 Finn smirks at Alvie over his shoulder. “You know what, I always wondered what it would be like to play the part of a modern day Robin Hood.”

 I can't help it when I snicker. “Yeah, you're a real saint Finn.”

 Finn gives me the stink eye but doesn't say anything. He's leading us up a flight of stairs now, and the realisation suddenly hits me that we've got an ungodly number of steps to climb.

 After about seven flights I have to sit down to catch my breath. The rest of them are still continuing on ahead, but Wolf stops and gives me a nudge with his snout, as if to encourage me to keep going. I pet him on the head before I hear Finn's laughter drifting down the staircase. “Aw, are you not able for the climb, petal?” he asks in a sing song voice.

 I scowl up at him. “Can't we take the elevator from here or something?”

 Finn's leaning over the railing now, and his smirk is intolerable. “We could, but to do that we'd have to break into the main part of the building, which will be riskier in terms of getting caught.”

 “Let's try it,” Rita urges, but I think she wants to do it more for the thrill rather than because she's sick of climbing the stairs.

 Finn looks at her a moment. “You sure? We'll be fucked if we get caught.”

 Rita smiles widely. “One hundred per cent sure,” she replies.

 So it's settled. I get up and go to join the rest of them, and when we get to the next landing there's a door identical to all the others that leads into the main building. It has a similar security system to the one that was on the door outside. Finn works his magic a second time and we all scurry down the carpeted corridor before coming to the elevator. Rita hits the button, and I feel like my heart is going to explode with nerves as the seconds tick by and we wait for the doors to open into the lift.

 Finally, the doors slide open, and I let out a long, relieved sigh to see that no workers are behind them. Finn chuckles and gently pushes me forward, while Alvie hits the button for the very top floor. I watch as the numbers slowly rise. I feel that sudden weightlessness as we zoom up into the air, and then my body begins to drag as we come to our final destination. All the while I had been watching each floor go by on the screen and saying a silent prayer in my head that nobody stops the elevator and catches us in the act.

 “What if the security guard spots us on the cameras?” I ask with worry. We leave the elevator and then have to climb one final set of stairs. Finn has to jimmy open the door which leads out onto a massive, empty concrete roof. I peer all around at the panoramic views.

 “Let's just hope that doesn't happen,” Finn replies. “But if it does you might want to try summoning up those sparks of yours from the other night.”

 “I don't even know how I did that,” I tell him in dejection. If we do get caught up here, I'm definitely not going to be the one to get us out of it.

 “Don't worry,” Rita reassures me. “If anything goes wrong I know a confusion spell that will give us enough time to get the hell out of dodge.”

 “I like that phrase,” says Alvie with grin as he helps Rita to set up the spell. They're both currently pulling things out of her ruck sack. They sit down on the cold concrete ground and first set down Rita's wooden spell board that I recognise from that time on Ridley Island. It's funny the little details that you remember.

 I pace around the outer edge of the roof, morbidly fascinated by how far up we are. Wolf pads alongside me as I glance over the low rise wall. My heart thumps when I look directly down and see how small everything seems. The world is so far below me. Two strong arms pull me back and I turn my head to find Finn scowling at me.

 “Are you trying to get yourself killed?” he asks, through gritted teeth.

 I grin up at him. “Why Finn, I didn't know you cared so much.”

 “I promised I'd protect you, didn't I? Even if it is from your own stupidity.”

 I pull away from him. “Whatever.” Then I go back over to sit with Rita and Alvie, who seem to be just about ready to begin. Rita picks up a bottle of water and pours it into her spell bowl. There are various herbs in clear plastic bags, as well as a pen and paper and two L-shaped pieces of thin metal with ornately carved handles on the ends of them. I raise an eyebrow and ask Rita what they're for.

 She glances up at me. “You've never heard of dowsing rods?”

 “It rings a vague bell,” I admit, but I can put my finger on it.

 “People used them back in the olden days,” Alvie answers, then continues, “Except back then it wasn't metal rods. They would look for a Y-shaped branch from a willow tree, hold onto each end with their hands, and the bit that points out would lead them to a location where there was water.”

 I snort, unable to help myself. “And you believe in that?”

 Rita shoots me a cynical look. “It worked for people for hundreds of years. You really are going to have to get over your non-believer ways Tegan. After all, you've got your own magic to contend with now.” She glances down at my stomach, the place where she said my magic sits, like a ball of fire. I nervously run a hand over my abdomen.

 “You'll be using those after we cast the initial spell,” Rita continues. “The thing is, I want to be able to see your dad first. I hate to be blunt, but there's a good chance they already killed him. Once we summon up a glimpse of him, we'll be able to determine whether or not that's the case. If he is still alive and being kept somewhere in the city, I'll show you how to use the dowsing rods to turn you in the direction of where he's being kept.”

 “I thought Alvie said people used them to find bodies of water, not people,” I interject.

 “That's true,” Rita replies. “But they can also be used to locate missing people and things.”

 “Handy.” I reply, and I'm actually looking forward to discovering if they really work. If they do I might just have to commandeer them; I'm always losing little things like keys and jewellery. Thinking this, I put my hand in my pocket and pull out my dad's watch, before placing it down with the rest of Rita's spell ingredients.

 Rita nods and then begins stirring in the herbs. Into her spell bowl she adds, calling each one out in turn, hyacinth, jasmine, lotus, sandalwood and tamarisk. Lastly, she picks up some yellow flowers with green leaves on the ends.

 “These,” says Rita, holding up the flowers to give me a proper look at them, “are cowslip. They are the most potent herb you can use when you want to find something that is lost. You need to concentrate now Tegan, because once I drop them in, the process will begin.”

 I look over to Finn, who's standing nearby with Wolf by his side, quietly watching us. Then I turn back to Rita and reply seriously, “Sure, you've got my undivided attention.”

 “Good,” she answers, before throwing the cowslip into the bowl. The three of us take each other's hands and instinctively I close my eyes and clear my mind without Rita needing to tell me. All of a sudden, casting spells seems like the most natural thing in the world to me.

 Both Rita and Alvie let go of my hands then, and I open my eyes to find Rita holding the pen and paper out to me. Hesitantly, I take them from her. “I want you to think of a time in the past when you shared a moment with your dad, a time when you felt close to him. Once you have the scene in your head, keep your eyes closed and write his full name out onto the paper, then fold it in half and throw it into the bowl.”

 I close my eyes again, the pen and paper gripped firmly in my hands. Various memories present themselves, but the one I choose is particularly emotional. It happened when I was seventeen. It was the anniversary of my mother's death, and I walked into my dad's room to find him staring at a photo of her, tears streaming down his face. Even though I couldn't understand his grief, because I'd never known her properly, I ran to him and hugged him tightly. I keep that moment in my mind's eye, as I press the paper out flat on my thigh, lift the pen, and scribble down the name
Martin Frederick Stolle
.

 I fold it in half once I'm done, open my eyes, and throw it into the water just like Rita told me to. Rita has a serene look on her face, which is unusual in itself. I've never seen her calm other than when she's casting a spell. It's like she becomes this whole other person. Someone serious and powerful.

 She picks up my dad's watch and throws it into the water. Then she lifts two fingers and begins to stir a clockwise circle into the concoction in the bowl. She does this six times before quickly taking mine and Alvie's hands again. The concoction continues to swirl, even after she's stopped stirring it. It actually begins to speed up, and becomes more and more rapid before it evens out and a picture formulates in the liquid. The water is now eerily calm. At first all I can see is white, but then I begin to make out the form of my dad, sitting on a thin mattress with pale sheets that reminds me of a hospital bed.

 The room he's sitting in is cold and sterile, no unnecessary furnishings in sight. I stare at his face, but he doesn't look scared or angry, he just looks resigned. As though he's been held in this place for so long that he no longer has the energy to fight against it. A cold sweat trickles down my neck, as I wonder if he's been there for the whole year and a half since he went missing. He might be entirely institutionalised with the whole thing by now.

 Then he stands up and goes to peer out a tiny window, but all you can see is light because the view has been blocked out with white paint and metal bars. Damn, if we could have seen the view it might have been easier to determine where in the city he might be.

 He lets out a weary sigh, then he turns around and paces over to the door. He knocks on it three times, and a moment later a thin frosted glass window, no more than two inches high and three wide, slides open. A face is on the other side of it, but all you can see is the mouth.

 It's definitely a male mouth, and slightly older judging from the set wrinkles around the lips. Those lips are strangely familiar, but my brain just can't seem to place them. I must be imagining it. My desperation to know who is keeping my dad prisoner is making me think I recognise his captor, when really I'm clueless.

 “I need to use the bathroom,” says my dad to the faceless man on the other side of the hole in the door. The mouth opens, and is just about to respond. My heart lifts, because if I hear the voice then maybe I'll be able to remember if I really do know who that mouth belongs to. But just before the words come, the image in Rita's spell bowl dissolves. A loud F word comes tumbling out of Rita, and I think in my head,
my sentiments exactly
.

 “We need to get the image back,” I tell her frantically. But she only shakes her head.

 “I can't do it again Tegan, as much as I'd like to. I'm all tapped out for the day and I don't have enough ingredients left either.”

 I curse quietly, and now Finn comes to sit with the three of us. “I didn't recognise that place,” he tells us. “Whoever's keeping him was clever enough to block out the view.”

 Nerves are still thrumming through my body, because now I know that my dad
really
is being kept by some unknown captor. He hadn't decided to up and retire to the Bahamas, as much as I wish he had.

 Rita shrugs. She's currently fishing my dad's broken watch out of her spell bowl. She shakes the liquid from it and picks away a few stray leaves that have stuck to it.

 “We still have the dowsing rods,” says Alvie, trying to add a bit of hope to a hopeless situation.

 I look to him. “Okay, what do I need to do with them?”

 Rita picks them up and runs them through the concoction in the bowl before handing them over to me. Little drops of liquid run off the thin metal. She stands up and motions for me to follow her. Then she places the watch down onto the ground and hands me the rods. I grip the handles in each of my hands, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a strange rush go through me the moment my hands made contact with their carved surface.